Cooling My Story-doesn't that sound cute?but like Mr Jackson,things'may'not be what they seem

Lo!

Since I can't find the buyer experiances thread (and I think I read it was being updated somewhere) and that this will affect mainly those in the extreme cooling world, I figured this would be the best place for it.

none of the following stands as slander or libel - but is just my truthful experiance and therefore may not always happen to everyone

During the summer I did some web design work for my university and served vast amounts of beer in a bar - so I thought I'd spend my cash on a completely new computer...

All was good - got most of my parts from overclockers.co.uk and ebuyer.co.uk.

Unfortunately I also bought my £200 case from the Overclocking Store. The next day they fell through, but promised that they wouldn't take my money - then they did. Great, so I lost £200. Also, they only had one of these cases in stock - for those of you who are lawyers may know that that means the case was mine, therefore the creditors stole my case, but wouldn't give it to me anyway!

Ah, I put it down to bad luck and learnt my lesson - I just had to work an extra two weeks to earn my money back. This time I USED MY CREDIT CARD (tip 1 - always use a credit card, they will usually get your money back if something bad happens) and bought the case from scan.co.uk. It arrived and all was happy.

Then I went on to get some water-cooling kit. I figured I'd move into the world of extreme cooling to get quiet results - maybe even buy a phase change cooler when I get rich and it'll all be good.

Sadly I didn't buy from somewhere I know (tip 2 - buy from people you know to be good - just look around the forums for people who care about what they sell, no names, but one's REALLY good at polishing wavemasters and the other's Welsh for example!). Whilst reading these forums, like I do everyday, someone had pointed out that www.h2o-computer.co.uk sold water cooled PSUs. FANTASTIC, I don't know them well, they look new, but water cooled PSUs are tempting - I bought one from them and a stack of other things to make my computer run quiet and so can get myself a good night's sleep while in my digs at uni. That was ordered back in August and was due to arrive in around 1 to 2 weeks.

Nothing happened and I started writing to them. Nothing, then in October I found out that the company spawned from www.h2o-computer.com . Ok, so i should have seen that one coming - Germany though, gonna be difficult. I wrote to them, and phoned them (even though my German isn't up to scratch - I can sort of shout at them in half English, half German). I managed to get hold of them in January (wow! count the months!) and they said that someone running their business over here messed everythng up - although I'm not sure what to believe. They then sorted things out and promised arrival in 1 to 2 weeks as before.

Guess what happened? It's not hard.... Nothing...

Ok, so I write some more and call some more. Nothing, they avoid me. So I think something has fallen through with their company, happened before, may happen again. So I setup a new account on their forums with a new name and ask why there is a delay - but don't give any details. In less than an hour, a reply asking my details. SO THEY ARE AVOIDING ME!!! Then I threaten legal action (tip 3 - small claims court actions only cost just over £20, which you get back when you win! English & Welsh law says that if things don't turn up when stated or in a reasonable time, then you can have your money back and damages. The Sale of Goods Act 1988 if you want to quote me) .

I still didn't get a reply for over a week, and I stated they had to reply within a week or I'll start getting in touch with legal people, Mastercard, PayPal etc etc. Well, I figured as I had to hand in my dissertation (regarding the legal system and the internet - comedy huh?!?), that I'd deal with it afterwards.

Although now would be a good time to tell you a couple of other people were in my boat and they got theirs in the end - so it can't be all that bad. One thing that was noted though, is that they sent sweets to make up for the loss. Now the person who recieved the sweets were VERY happy, but I found that insulting - I mean - I could have bought MORE than sweets with merely the interest from the bank I missed out on!!! How old do they thing I am?

Well, last night I wrote a nice thing on their forums saying 'please let me know' alot and giving a last chance warning before going to to do something tomorrow - I mean, I should have long before. Today though, I got a call from my house back in Wales stating that I have two large parcels from Germany. They had sent it to the wrong address, but it has finaly arrived late March, so that's 8 months late! Now I can finally mod my computer, make it quite and get back to MDK on some of those bigger fan grills he makes (which I have been holding back on him about - but it wasn't my fault, honist!!).

So yeah,

Be careful and thanks for reading all that!


Chris 'Wharrad'

 

Whoa. Bummer, dude! Good thing you didn't order a CPU or mobo because it would have been obsolete by the time you received it... Another lesson in "Let the Buyer Beware"...

 

Heh, another law student then, nice to know i aint alone...

It's so annoying when things like that happen, esp. with the oveclocking store.
personnaly i only ever use credit cards to order online and i've had to claim monay back from them once because the goods i ordered went missing somewhere between dispatch and delivery.

After 8 mnths of waiting though you should be entitled to more than just the goods you ordered. Maybe not in legal terms now that you've accepted the goods but it would be good business management to make some sort of gesture (not sweets) towards a customer.

I find that a better solution before threatening legal action is to look for a governing body or regulatory board for the business and approach them for advice - sometimes they will even contact the 'guilty party' on your behalf especially if they are in breach of certain business ethics or regulations.

Anyway, glad you got your kit - you'll just have to remember to order it 8mnths in advance from now on!!

 

hey dude

just read it thats well harsh. Catch me on msn if you have any queries regarding anything, espacally safe compannys to buy stuff from or just for a random chat .

Its good that it all turned up in the end


morgan.

 

Thanks for the support guys!

The story - although long, so most won't read it - will hopefully warn people to check where they're buying things from in future.

Normally I always use companies which have been good in the past and I know their address - but for water cooling parts you sometimes have to goto other retailers. Although I will check twice on the forums here in future - most of the stuff bought could have come from people active around here... and I might take you up on the offer of advice when I'm looking for the next upgrade M_D_K!


Ah well, all is good now and the cooling should be going in soon